Brave new television world

The time when television viewers were satisfied with three channels is a thing of the past. The technology of reception devices is highly sophisticated. The choice of programmes seems unlimited and the ways in which the signals reach the screen have also multiplied. A brief overview:

Hardly anyone receives television programmes via an antenna any more. Only ten percent of private households received their TV programmes this way in 2021. In the ranking of the most common TV connections, satellite and cable connections dominated in 2021: 45 percent and 43 percent of all private households owned these types of connection, respectively. Compared to 2019, the share of households with satellite and cable TV hardly changed: satellite TV recorded a plus of 0.3 percent, cable TV a minus of 1.3 percent. 

Television via the internet is gaining in importance in Germany. As reported by the Federal Statistical Office, 19 percent of private households were already able to watch television via their broadband connection in 2021. Even though internet TV was still in third place among the types of TV reception in 2021, it was the only one to record a significant increase compared to 2019. In 2019, the share of households with internet TV had still been 15 per cent. Since then, internet TV has increased by four percent. 

In total, 17 million households had satellite TV connections and 16 million households had cable TV connections in 2021. Internet TV had seven million private households, four million households had an antenna TV connection. 

The housing situation has a great influence on the type of TV reception: a good half of households that lived in rented accommodation had a cable connection in 2021. If the household lived in its own four walls, the share was only 28 percent. In contrast, less than a third of tenant households had a satellite TV connection. In owner-occupied housing, on the other hand, the share of households with satellite TV was almost two-thirds. Internet TV was about equally common in both cases. 

(Photo: © Alexander Antropov, Pixabay)